Patriots’ Kelley Washington relishes special role

Thursday

Jul 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2008 at 2:22 PM

Glen Farley

His NFL future uncertain after four nondescript seasons in Cincinnati, Kelley Washington established a role for himself in New England last year, flourishing as a special teams player with the Patriots.

Now, Washington is hoping he can catch on with the team.

“It’s fun,” Washington said of the special teams role he embraced after relocating to New England from Cincinnati as an unrestricted free agent, “(but) I’m a wide receiver first.”

Not last year.

Last year, with his move to New England from Cincy, Washington morphed into an offensive version of Larry Izzo, a transformation he readily accepted.

“I’ve always got the mentality where I want to play on Sundays,” said Washington. “I’ve been on the side where I’m lifting weights on Sundays and don’t even get to dress. So I love it going out there, flying around and making plays because there are plays to be made (on special teams), just like offensively and defensively.

“I want to be the one making special teams plays, getting the crowd excited, getting the team excited. But again, I’m going to work as hard as I can to get on the field offensively and if the coaches want me out there making plays, if that’s what the team needs, I’m willing to do that. But it all starts here on the practice field.”

A week into his second training camp at Gillette Stadium, Washington is trying to take a hands-on approach to the Patriots’ offense.

On the one hand, Randy Moss (an NFL-record 23 touchdown receptions) and Wes Welker (a franchise-record 112 receptions) posted jaw-dropping numbers at the Patriots’ wide receiver position. On the other hand, so did Washington.

The sixth-year player somehow managed to go oh-for-the-season.

Washington may have gone catchless, but he isn’t clueless.

There is no need to recite the numbers — or lack thereof — to him.

“I didn’t have any catches last year,” he pointed out. “All my plays came on special teams. So I want to try to get on the field offensively and make some plays this preseason to show the team I’m reliable and I can make plays like I’ve done in the past in my career. I’ve just got to continue to work hard and get some camaraderie with the quarterbacks and go out there and make some plays.”

Although the first pick in the third round of the 2003 NFL draft was far from spectacular, the former Tennessee Volunteer did manage to catch 72 passes for 893 yards and nine touchdowns in 44 games during his time in Cincinnati.

With Welker, Moss, Donte’ Stallworth (now in Cleveland) and Jabar Gaffney providing quarterback Tom Brady with a corps of helping hands he’d never seen before, though, Washington became the invisible man at the Patriots’ wide receiver position last year.

The 6-3, 215-pounder did stand tall on the Patriots’ special teams unit, however, finishing second in tackles with 18 (16 more than he’d made in four years with the Bengals) and registering the team’s first blocked punt since 1999 when he stuffed a Ben Graham kick, giving New England possession at the 3, setting up a Laurence Maroney touchdown in the second quarter of a 20-10 win over the New York Jets last Dec. 16 at Gillette.

“Whether that was something that didn’t come out in Cincinnati as it did here or maybe their choice not to use him as much or maybe his ability to play better here in our system, I couldn’t answer that question for sure,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said. “He showed up early in camp and that performance carried all the way through the year. He made a lot of great plays for us in the kicking game.”

While Washington may have yearned to become a member of the Brady bunch, his new-found role sure beat inactivity, something he became all too accustomed with over his final two years in Cincinnati when he suited up for all of 12 regular-season games.

“I wanted to run out of that tunnel on Sunday,” said Washington, “and I was going to do whatever possible to make that happen.”